EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK ‘THE FRENCH DISPATCH’ By Matt Zoller Seitiz

Anderson and Sami have a unique relationship: Sami's the person who figures out how to pull off camera moves that the director has been warned are impossible…

THE NEW YORK TIMES, JUNE 21, 2023

Sami brings ingenious design, a D.I.Y. spirit and pure athletic ability to the job of key grip — pushing and pulling heavy camera rigs with exacting precision.

CINEMATOGRAPHY ART, JAN. 2023

Among various impressive projects, Sanjay has had the opportunity to join Hoyte Van Hoytema on Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece ‘Tenet’, and ‘Silence’ with Rodrigo Prieto directed by Martin Scorcese.

A LONG SHOT NOV. 30, 2021

It could be the motto of a legendary stage magician, but it’s actually a quote from Wes Anderson’s key grip, Sanjay Sami. An illusionist of a different sort, his long partnership with the filmmaker recently culminated in The French Dispatch, an anthology of short films about a Sunday supplement to a nonexistent Kansas newspaper, whose final segment features a quietly impossible 70-second tracking shot that Sami describes as “the most complicated shot I’ve ever worked on in my life.”

‘You Just Have to Accept That Wes Is Right’ The French Dispatch crew explains how it pulled off the movie’s quietly impossible tracking shot.

By Matt Zoller Seitz

EXCERPT FROM ‘THE WES ANDERSON COLLECTION’ By Matt Zoller Seitiz

Wes Anderson: …The core people that’s very valuable. Our key grip, Sanjay Sami, for example, who worked on The Darjeeling Limited…

GQ APRIL 2020

In technical terms, Sami heads the department of engineers that are responsible for rigging and pushing cameras on film sets, to get that just-right camera angle. Being grip means a lot of heavy lifting, but “it’s a lot of problem-solving: creative application of physics and mathematics to solve very unique types of problems.

THE ONION, SEPTEMBER 2018

“They can include all the movie stars they want, it’s just not a Wes Anderson movie unless key grip Sanjay Sami is involved.”

ADAM BUXTON PODCAST, MARCH 2018

A shout out to Sanjay Sami at 51 min!

INDIA TODAY, JAN 16, 2015

The Indian who is happiest with filmmaker Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel winning the Golden Globe for the best comedy or musical could be Sanjay Sami.

AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER, MARCH 2014

Shot by Robert Yeoman, ASC, The Grand Budapest Hotel is very much a film in keeping with his previous collaborations with director Wes Anderson: a storybook tale with complex narratives and first-person narrators, captured in an illustrative style that’s both theatrical and cinematic. Anderson constantly encouraged Yeoman and key grip Sanjay Sami to find new ways to accomplish shots. A new addition to their toolkit was the Towercam, a telescoping camera platform from MAT in Berlin.

AMPERSAND MAGAZINE, JAN 16, 2015

Making movies is a huge effort. It is above all else, a team effort. Movies do not get made by one person. It is the coming together of several departments, with several people in each of them. When people come to The Grip Works they know that the Grip department is in good hands.

HINDUSTAN TIMES, OCTOBER, 2006

Sami’s company, The Grip Works, is the only full-facility grip service in India that supplies state-of-the-art equipment and trained professionals to international film crew that shoot in India, besides the handful Indian filmmakers who have started hiring his services lately. The Bourne Supremacy, The Fall, The Guru, The Cell and Marigold are among the international films his 16-member crew has handled. Bollywood projects include Dil Chahta Hai, Don, Being Cyrus and Kabul Express.

INDIAN EXPRESS, JAN 29, 2006

With many more Western film crews coming to India to shoot, Sami’s brand of service is more and more in demand. But it isn’t just Hollywood and ad film producers hiring a professional grip company.

HINDUSTAN TIMES, DECEMBER 2005

India is positioning itself as a potentially large outsourcing destination for Hollywood movies. The government's policies, including an agreement with the UK, has seen at least nine new Hollywood films have either been made or are in the process of being made in India in a dramatic surge unprecedented in Indian history.

ARRI NEWS APRIL 2004

LAKSHYA was shot entirely on location in India – in the Himalayas in and around Leh, Ladakh at 11,500 ft to 18,000 ft (where the highest crane shot ever done for a narrative feature film at 17,796ft above sea level was carried out), New Delhi, at the IMA (Indian Military Academy) in Dehradun and on sets in Film City in Bombay.